


day seventeen: mythology

by Hannah (hannahoftheinternet)



Series: HartmonFest 2019 [17]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Character Undeath, Hartmon Fest 2019, Heaven, Heavy Angst, M/M, Mythology References, POV Cisco Ramon, POV Third Person, Present Tense, Rescue Missions, Resurrection, Underworld, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 18:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18036290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahoftheinternet/pseuds/Hannah
Summary: A simple fight should have ended in tragedy.





	day seventeen: mythology

Cisco fires off a burst of blue vibration at an oncoming villain, sending her crashing into a park bench. Spidey-senses tingling, he shoots another blast over his shoulder, and the yelp of surprise tells him that he hit his target.

“Good shot!” Hartley calls to him, stealing the gun from yet another robber, who is currently laying on the ground and vibrating like crazy, and tossing it into the bushes.

Cisco elbows the returning villain in the face, feeling her nose break as he hits her. Power-dampening cuffs, badda-bing, badda-bang, she’s in custody and Barry whisks her away. Who’s the dream team?

Hartley abandons the victim of his sonic gloves and stares at the toppled bench. “Nice, Cisco, who’s gonna pay for that?”

“Lucky we have two incredibly rich people on our side.” He grins.

And before he can ever react, the man whose organs Hartley almost sheared apart comes up behind him and snaps his neck.

 

The crunch of bone.

His head hanging unnaturally, Hartley collapses. 

The man steps over him.

Cisco still can’t move.

He can’t look away from Hartley.

He’s so still.

Cisco falls to his knees.

And screams.

 

_ No no no no no no no no. _

 

“Cisco.” The voice sounds far away, like he’s dreaming. “Cisco.”

He presses his face into the cool tiles and doesn’t answer. He doesn’t think he’ll ever say anything ever again.

Hartley is gone. 

He can’t deal with this.

It’s just… too much.

First Dante, now this.

 

_ Dante. _

Cisco sits bolt upright. Caitlin shrieks as he almost collides with her.

He stands, shakily, and grabs her shoulders.

“Dreamworld serum,” he croaks. “Please.”

“Cisco, I’m so sorry about Hartley. I know how much it hurts, but you can’t use the Dreamworld serum. I haven’t even tested it yet.”

He’s in the lab. Why is he in the lab? He needs to be with Hartley, needs that serum.  “Test it now. Before it’s too late. I’m not losing him.” He stumbles, off-kilter, mind replaying the image of his Hartley, head twisted sideways, in a heap on the ground. “I’m not losing him.”

His words dissolve into nonsense. Nothing makes sense anymore.

 

He’s laying in one of the medbeds, an IV fixed into his arm. Caitlin’s eyes are red from crying, but she stands firm.

She holds something out for him. He almost screams again when he sees what it is.

Hartley’s glasses.

 

Touching them is like an electric shock, reacting with the serum feeding into his veins, and this time he really does scream as blue and black fill his vision.

 

With a start, he snaps his eyes open. He’s not in the lab anymore. This is somewhere else, another plane. And there’s a face he recognizes.

“Dante,” he says.

Dante smiles. “Cisco. It’s good to see you again.”

“Some welcoming committee.” He looks around, trying to catch sight of anyone else. There’s someone else hanging around, but whoever it is stays far away, so Cisco can’t tell anything about them.

“Everyone else is busy,” Dante says, smiling in a way that makes Cisco wonder if he’s telling the truth. “How are you here? Why aren’t you having an aneurysm?”

Oh, right. He shouldn’t be standing around for too long. “My friend Caitlin developed a serum that can hold off the effects of going to Dreamworld for a day.”

“I’m assuming you didn’t come just to catch up with me.”

“My boyfriend died.” Saying it makes Cisco feel like he belongs in Dreamworld, like he’s dying. “I’m going to bring him back.”

“He’s probably lost.” Dante looks around, like Hartley’s soul might be hovering somewhere. “New people are drawn to the pomegranate tree.” He points off in one direction, but the landscape all looks the same. “That’s where I started.”

“Thanks,  _ hermano _ ,” Cisco says, with feeling. “I owe you one.”

“Eh, I’m dead.” Dante waves a hand like it’s old news. “You don’t owe me anything. I have everything I want.”

Cisco knows that Dreamworld is different for everyone. He sees it as a glowing blue and black wasteland, but that’s because he doesn’t belong there. It looks like paradise to someone who is actually dead; he remembers that from his previous and nearly fatal visit. He wants to ask, to learn, but he doesn’t have time. Time moves differently in Dreamworld. A minute here could be a decade on Earth, but a week could only take a couple of minutes. The problem with separate planes of existence.

“I’ll visit you,” he says.

“Don’t stay too long.” With that absolutely brilliant advice, Dante vanishes into thin air.

Cisco notices that he’s not freaking out anymore. Dreamworld has a naturally soothing air. It’s like good memories and popcorn.

That makes him think of Hartley. Of their first date to a movie theatre, specifically. They saw  _ Rent _ .

He’s going to get Hartley back.

He sets off in the direction that Dante pointed (he hopes), and okay, someone is definitely watching him.

“You’re not very stealthy,” he says loudly, and someone shimmers into existence.

He’s pretty weird-looking at first. His skin and hair look like they’ve been leached of all color, but he looks friendly enough. He wears a blue and silver uniform that looks a bit like the Vibe suit.

“Uh, who are you?” Cisco really needs to get going.

“I’m Dreamworld. Hades. Paul. Take your pick.” The man inclines his head. “My point is, I’m in charge here.”

That means—“You took Hartley away from me.”

“Hartley?” Paul gets a far away look in his eyes. “Oh, I can see him. He’s beautiful. I can see why you like him. You’ve got it all wrong. I don’t decide who lives and dies. I’m just the gatekeeper.”

“Where is he?” he demands, even though he really wants to ask the questions that are bubbling in his brain.

Paul taps a finger on his chin. “He’s close to the pomegranate tree now,” he informs Cisco. “You should hurry before you lose him.”

“What?”

“New souls are up for grabs until they eat from the pomegranate tree. That's why they’re drawn there. So no one can claim them.”

“How do I get us both back to Earth? And what about Hartley’s body? His neck was broken.” The memory sends a shudder through Cisco’s body.  _ I will get him back _ .

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll put in a good word for you. I see myself in you, Cisco. You want to save the one you love. You deserve a happy ending.”

Paul disappears as quickly as he appeared, and Cisco is alone again. Suckeroo.

He’s barely taken another step when pain wracks his body. This is pain he knows,  _ your consciousness isn’t actually meant to be going all these different places _ pain. “Not. Yet.” The agony shooting up and down his spine subsides slightly, but flares again as he keeps moving. In fact, it gets worse and worse as the pomegranate tree comes into view.

It’s a behemoth of a tree, so tall that Cisco can’t see the top even when he tilts his head way back. Ruby-red fruit grows on every branch.

And the people. There are so many people, swarming up the branches of the tree, plucking fruit, tearing into the pomegranates and swallowing the seeds. They cheer as they eat, seeing their paradise. It’s different for everyone, a ski lodge with friends and dogs or a beach with lots of alcohol. According to Dante, paradise is hardwood floors and a grand piano.

Then Cisco sees Hartley.

He looks nervous, almost scared. Dying does that to you. He fixes his glasses, rests a finger on his ear. Looks directly as Cisco.

Despite the pain, Cisco runs. He runs through the crowds of people, muttering half-hearted apologies. Runs straight into the arms of his love.

“Please tell me you didn’t die,” is the first thing Hartley murmurs.

“I came to bring you back.”

Hartley freezes, and Cisco touches his shoulder, pulling away to look at him. And then he understands.

Hartley is seeing his paradise too.

“I… why?”

Those words send tears streaming down Cisco’s cheeks, pain rocketing through him. “Because I love you. I can’t imagine my life without you.”

“There’s a place for you here.” Hartley doesn’t seem to have heard. “I can see us working together, learning more here than we ever could on Earth. It’s like being home.”

“Hartley.” Cisco tastes salt, and he can barely force the words out. But he knows that if he takes Hartley away from what he wants the most, he’ll never forgive himself. “If you want to stay, you can stay. I won’t keep you from paradise.”

Then Hartley smiles fondly. Kisses him, soft and sweet and so achingly familiar. “Cisco,” he says, “I will always choose you.”

 

And then Cisco is back in the lab, gasping for air as he sits up. Barry, watching him, heaves a sigh of relief.

“Hartley?” Cisco says. Caitlin looks like she’s about to say something, but then--

“Can I have my glasses, please?” Hartley. Beautiful, wonderful, Hartley, whose head sits on his neck exactly the way it should. He’s standing in the doorway, blinking. “I can’t see.”

As if pulled by some invisible force, Cisco stands up, not caring about the IV that just ripped from his arm, and runs across the room. He kisses Hartley, and that’s now he knows that they’re both  _ alive. _

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry. I'm watching a TV show with a favorite, canonically gay minor character who is definitely in love with a science-loving main character. This minor character also gets his neck broken. I was very angry about this. If you get my Star Trek references OR my Greek mythology references, I will love you forever.
> 
> Comments are a writer's best friend!


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